Previous displays and those presently used in Automatic Bowling Scorers are projection devices and/or cathode ray tubes. Projection devices require considerable current and become less legible in daylight hours. Cathode ray tubes become bulkier, heavier more expensive and less legible as size is increased. This has led to use of two separate CRT displays (at each lane). The first is a small, complete game display showing names and frame-by-frame scoring as the game progresses and is provided on a console in the players' space in back of the bowler's approach area. According to ABC scoring rules, this display is the required score record. It is, however, too small to be read more than a few feet away and is located such that the current bowler cannot see it from the approach area. The bowlers themselves are therefore provided with a second CRT display, mounted for viewing from the approach area by being suspended from the ceiling in the region of the foul line. The second CRT displays are necessarily large and heavy and correspondingly costly to install, yet are still not legible more than a few feet beyond the bowles' approach area.
To compensate, one presently used system displays only three current player frames at a time in the overhead unit of each lane. It is still not legible to spectators and causes confusion in determining which bowler is playing and who is up on which lane next during team play.